Thread Jack: Courses you need to see again...hacked...What about penal ones?

[Ronald Montesano]

Matt's post about NGCCanada jump-started a thought...isn't it always the penal/overly penal ones that we want to have another go at? Great but forgiving ones tend to have less misfortune along the way (unless you 5-putt the greens...paging Fox Chapel!)

What say ye merry gentlemen of Thanksgiving (and whatever they are celebrating in Europe these days)? Of the courses you want another go at, due to poor performance, were they overly penal and, if so, on which shots--tee ball, approaches, or around the putting abode?

[Matt Bosela]

Ron,

The crazy thing about my poor round at the National GC of Canada was the fact that the greens had been sanded earlier that day.  They have notoriously difficult and undulating putting surfaces and if they were running at full speed, I can assure you that I would have ended up another 5-8 strokes higher than my already inflated score.

My problem that day was with the driver - most of the landing areas are pinched out there and I had enormous difficulty keeping the ball in the short grass and out of the trees or water.

[don_bartlett]

+1 on the National...  17 and 18 are likely the toughest finishing holes I've ever played (and I have usually butchered them both)...    Neither hole set up well for a lefty who draws the ball.  17 you have about a 20 yard wide fairway with willow trees on the left, and water on the right, with an approach shot to an elevated green...  18 downhill tee shot, that has the same boby of water on the right, trees and bunkers on the left.  If you keep your ball in play, you'll have a 200 yrd shot uphill which plays more like 220 with many bunkers protecting the green. 

[Kalen Braley]

I took another crack at Idaho Club this past year and improved my score by about 10 strokes...but thats not saying much, I still shot 116.

Next year I will undoubtedly play it again and see if I can break 110!! 

[Jud_T]

Ron,

I'm sure this is true for the better players.  As for us average hacks, getting beat up once is generally enough to send us packing IMO...

[Andy Troeger]

I purposely left off courses where I felt like I played my normal game and just couldn't score. The ones I need to play again because I hacked were the ones where the errors were self induced, mainly because I couldn't get the ball in play off the tee.

Idaho Club is a good example. I didn't necessarily hit it significantly worse there than at Rock Creek, but scored FAR worse due to the course. I'd go back for the scenery, but would buy a box of top-flites or used balls beforehand.